Diocese issues statement on resigned priest

In response to a media inquiry, prompted by a news story published in the White Plains Journal News on Nov. 20, the Diocese of Albany issued the following statement concerning a former diocesan priest who, upon the request of Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, resigned from the priesthood 10 years ago. Here is the statement:

Bishop Hubbard first received from a victim an allegation of sexual misconduct by Dozia Wilson in 1997. By that time, Wilson had already been removed permanently from ministry.

Since 1997, the Diocese has worked with the victim and provided counseling. More recently, in March 2002, Bishop Hubbard met with the victim, at the victim's request, in an attempt to bring healing for the victim's pain.

During the meeting, Bishop Hubbard told the victim that sometime after he became bishop in 1977, it had come to his attention that Wilson had moved away from the Albany area in 1976, at the insistence of local law enforcement authorities, because of an incident regarding the appropriateness of Wilson's interaction with minors. No charges had ever been brought by civil authorities. However, the Albany Diocese immediately informed Boston Church officials of Wilson's background in 1976 when Wilson sought an assignment in the Boston area.

In 1980, when Wilson sought to return to work in the Albany Diocese (he had then served three years in the Boston area and three months at a Rochester parish), Bishop Hubbard consulted with local law enforcement officials, who consented to Wilson's return to the Albany region.

From 1976 until 1990, the Albany Diocese received no reports of misconduct on Wilson's part. In 1990, the Bishop received a call from the Hudson area, expressing unease about Wilson's interaction with minors. No allegations of sexual misconduct were made, and the caller identified no particular victim.

Nevertheless, mindful of the earlier concerns expressed in 1976, Bishop Hubbard immediately removed Wilson from his post as associate pastor at St. Mary's in Hudson, required that he stay at a therapeutic center for an extended period of rehabilitation and revoked his faculties to celebrate the sacraments.

In 1991, at the completion of his therapy, he was not reassigned to ministry and never regained his priestly faculties. In 1993, at Bishop Hubbard's request, Wilson resigned formally from the ministry. He is no longer a priest of the Albany Diocese nor of any other diocese.

In the Albany Diocese, Wilson served as an associate pastor at Sacred Heart, Albany, from 1972 to '76; as associate pastor of St. Ann's in Fort Ann from 1980 to '81; and as an associate pastor at St. Mary's, Hudson, and part-time chaplain at Columbia County jail and Columbia-Greene Community College from 1981 until '90.

Bishop Hubbard noted that the procedures regarding the removal of priests are much more rigid now than they were in the 1970s.

As in all cases of this nature, the Diocese continues to encourage all individuals who feel they have suffered abuse by any diocesan representatives to contact the Diocese. The Diocese continues to offer counseling and other services to assist victims and their families.

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